Hadn't even realised I'd back Spain to win it in three bets. Planning on backing France to win the tournament, either Lukaku or Griezmann top scorer and probably a cheeky quid on England/France in the final at 50/1. All of that coupled with better on the actual games every day. Got to love some World Cup betting. I'll probably walk away from it all without a single win but it adds to the excitement!!!

Some nice bets there, like the look of the 2 in bold - what site did you use?

All on Sky Bet mate. Go into the football section and most of the first ones are under Specials and then World Cup RequestABet IIRC. There's plenty to get your teeth sunk into in that section. I tend to take a look at quite a few of the big outside bets and stick small stakes on them, always worth a punt.

Cheers mate - may have to open an account with them now.

Will open a BET365 account for the world cup, double your first deposit with the same amount in free bets up to £100 so will have £200 to bet on hopefully.

World Cup winner, Money back as a free bet if your team gets knocked out

Max bet is ten pounds

Eligibility restrictions apply
Max refund of £/€10 on first bet only
Free Bet stakes not returned
Free Bet expires after 7 days
Cashed out bets will not qualify for this offer
Limited availability
T&Cs apply

Crazy bets I know, I did hit a 200/1 at the last world cup so who knows. I'm banking on Senegal, Iceland and Peru to upset the odds., hoping Nigeria, Japan, Russia and Sweden flop. Also, would like the favourites to do well too as better chance of winning.

Do the folks on here reckon there will be loads of goals scored in the group games? What teams they expecting to ship goals as well as score themselves? I'm thinking Peru, Australia and Senegal myself.

Do the folks on here reckon there will be loads of goals scored in the group games? What teams they expecting to ship goals as well as score themselves? I'm thinking Peru, Australia and Senegal myself.

Maybe, it said on the radio earlier that the asst linesmen or whatever they're now called have been instructed not to raise their flag if it's a close call and let the video replay sort it out

Do the folks on here reckon there will be loads of goals scored in the group games? What teams they expecting to ship goals as well as score themselves? I'm thinking Peru, Australia and Senegal myself.

Maybe, it said on the radio earlier that the asst linesmen or whatever they're now called have been instructed not to raise their flag if it's a close call and let the video replay sort it out

Can see some of these games lasting 100+ minutes

Excellent - I like the both teams to score and no draw bets but BET365 don't offer it.

General:
Sadio Mane to be top scorer in Group H - 11/1
Senegal 1st, Colombia 2nd, Poland 3rd and Japan 4th - 16/1
Coutinho most assists and Griezmann top scorer - 250/1
Jesus, Kane and Lukaku all to have 12+ shots on target in the tournament - 14/1
Son to be Spurs top scorer at the tournament - 12/1 (in case Kane has a stinker)

Opening games:
Samedov and Golovin to have 3+shots tomorrow against Saudi - 500/1 (Yes, I have no clue who Samedov is and had to google him)
Smolov to score first and Russia 2-0 - 20/1

Most of the odds seem too crap to bet much on tomorrows opener so Friday is the day to start betting properly on the actual games.

Does anyone do matched betting? There doesn't seem to be any good offers for matched betting at this world cup. At the 2016 Euros Bet365 had free in-play bets for every England game which guaranteed around £30 profit for each game. No sign of that offer at these world cups so far, but I'll keep an eye out.

In a load of previews people are really hammering home how bad Russia apparently are to the point I'm almost tempted to have a little on a Saudi Arabia upset just in case.

I've no clue what to really expect from this one. Could be an absolute stinker of an opener or could be two bang average teams going at it with the magic of the World Cup creating a cracker (probably the former if we're being honest).

I had a quick butchers at some stats earlier and saw that Al-Sahlawi (yeah, no idea either) was the joint top scorer in World Cup qualifiers alongside Lewandowski and some other guy. Thought I might be onto something until I looked closer at him to see 8 of those goals came against Timor-Leste (I'm not making these names up). I've kind of got to go full Batdude though and back him like he's the greatest player in the world because he apparently trained with United the other month. Officially on the bandwagon.

Edit: 12/1 for him to score first. Quid on it just to add a bit of excitement to the game.

I haven't had a football bet, or any kind of bet, for about a month since I backed Exeter in the League 2 play semi-final, second leg

I think I'll stick to my usual boring win single or win double bets

Years ago I used to reckon you could make money just by betting the draw on all the first round of group games on the basis that every team was so scared of losing the first game that they all play negatively and would settle for the draw by half time.

I'm not sure that still applies though as I think all teams are much more set up to try and win their first game and take the pressure off but I might just keep a virtual running total of 'draw bets' for the first round of group games to see if the theory still holds.

I haven't had a football bet, or any kind of bet, for about a month since I backed Exeter in the League 2 play semi-final, second leg

I think I'll stick to my usual boring win single or win double bets

Years ago I used to reckon you could make money just by betting the draw on all the first round of group games on the basis that every team was so scared of losing the first game that they all play negatively and would settle for the draw by half time.

I'm not sure that still applies though as I think all teams are much more set up to try and win their first game and take the pressure off but I might just keep a virtual running total of 'draw bets' for the first round of group games to see if the theory still holds.

I haven't had a football bet, or any kind of bet, for about a month since I backed Exeter in the League 2 play semi-final, second leg

I think I'll stick to my usual boring win single or win double bets

Years ago I used to reckon you could make money just by betting the draw on all the first round of group games on the basis that every team was so scared of losing the first game that they all play negatively and would settle for the draw by half time.

I'm not sure that still applies though as I think all teams are much more set up to try and win their first game and take the pressure off but I might just keep a virtual running total of 'draw bets' for the first round of group games to see if the theory still holds.

In the 2014 world cup, there was only 2 draws in the first round of group games, so your theory is looking shaky

Yeah, I think that's probably what caused me to revise my scheme. I'm going back to the 1970s and 80s for my theory ……… I do think there is more attacking intent throughout top level football these days

Nevertheless I'll keep my eye on it ……… it's only 'virtual' so I'm not losing any money on it !

There's also the other scheme of backing draws in the final round of group games where both teams need a point to qualify. I'll check that one out after the first two rounds of group games